This time it was Tenel Ka’s turn to wake up. She blinked several times.Interesting. She thought. What was that?
Only slowly the memory returned; a faceless danger was laying everywhere and hunting someone.
Tenel Ka searched her memory to find out who it was. To her surprise, it was Mara Jade-Skywalker.But why do I get a vision of danger, if it is Mara? I’m not even close to her...
Oh...
She smiled knowingly. In it’s very own way, the force had taken actions to save Mara. Maybe the force itself wasn’t
able to protect her, but Tenel Ka was.

She looked at her chrono on the small desk beside her bed.0500.
That was an acceptable time.
She reached for her commlink, directly next to the chrono.

“Inaril?” She asked, knowing that at least one of her bodyguards in the neighbor quarters had to be awake.
“Yes, milady?” Inaril’s voice came over the comm almost instantly.
“I have a very important task for you and your fellow elite bodyguards: You’ll now also protect Mara Jade-Skywalker.
Don’t make it too obvious, but don’t allow anyone except Jedi and Colonel Darklighter or Admiral Kre’fey
entrance to her quarters or the quarters next, above and under hers.
Please also control everything that is delivered to these quarters.
Guard her as if she would be me.”
“Yes, milady. As you wish.”

Tenel Ka knew Inaril probably didn’t like it, but she was too well trained to complain or even disobey her orders.

At least one good thing about these bodyguards, and she even had found a way to get rid of them. Jacen had been right, as
always.

She sighed. Jacen...
Stop, this is not the time to think about him.

Suddenly Jaina touched her with the force. Jaina’s awake at this time?! Tenel Ka was totally confused, but she told her friend that she was fine and there
was absolutely nothing to worry about.

Stupid new force-bond. She cursed. The last thing she needed now was Jaina deciding to do the job of her now finally
distracted bodyguards.

Luckily Jaina was still so tired she dropped the topic and withdrew from Tenel Ka.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

From somewhere very far away, a masculine voice called her name.
Jaina tried to focus on it, but her head felt too heavy and she just couldn’t concentrate.
Soft hands grabbed her shoulders and shoke her body gently.

“Sticks!” Anni hissed at her. Jaina was finally able to open her eyes and noticed her head was resting on a desk.
All other pilots in the room, sitting in front of similar desks, where staring at her.

“Colonel Darklighter has already called you several times.”

Oh oh, not good. Jaina thought, mind still numb. But she managed to sit straight and gave the Colonel her innocents
smile.

He just stood in front of his pilots, slowly raising a brow.

Jaina’s sleep drunken brain wondered how long it had taken him to learn that. Somehow she always failed to lift only
one brow, but her mother was pretty good at it.

She was glad when Colonel Darklighter finally turned around and continued to explain some flight tactics.

This time, Jaina made sure to listen closely to every word. But that didn’t help her against the nervousness as Colonel
Darklighter called her to his desk after the lesson.
All other pilots had left, only Anni stood nearby and looked at them worried.
“It’s okay, Anni.” Jaina assured her and the young woman went to wait outside.

“Jaina, what’s up with you?” Darklighter asked her concerned. She pretended not to know what he was talking
about.
“Please, tell me. I’m not angry with you, only worried. You have to tell me if you have problems.”
Jaina avoided his gaze; she liked him very much, but how could she tell him about her vision? She was very sure he was one
of those who had died through her failure.

“Look at me!” He ordered. As Jaina lifted her gaze, he was shocked to see tears filling in her eyes. He hadn’t
known it was that bad.

“I’m sorry, Sir. I can’t.” She whispered, feeling guilty that she wasn’t even able to tell him
about it.

“Is there someone you would like to talk about this?”
“No, Sir.”
“Not even Admiral Kre’fey?” Gavin Darklighter pressed.
As she didn’t answer, he continued to question her.

“Is it something that affects your family?”
“Don’t know.” She replied.
“Something that affects me and the other pilots?”
“Probably.”
“Jaina, if you don’t tell me now, then I’ll…I’ll….” He surrendered, lifting his
hands and dropping them, pretending to be desperate.
“I’ll make you clean my socks!” He said threatening.

Jaina giggled, then sighed but decided to tell him a bit.
“I had a vision. It went very bad for us.”
“If it affects the whole ship, then you should better go and talk with Admiral Kre’fey about it.” Gavin
suggested.
“I don’t know.” Jaina tried to escape from this discussion. “Can I go now, Sir?”
He sighed. “Okay. You’re dismissed.”

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Admiral Kre’fey sat at his desk, studying the datapads which filled it entirely. Some annoying political stuff coming
from his cousin, the chief of state Borsk Fey’la; reports over the damage on the laser cannons; negative reports of
his security officers and something from Colonel Darklighter. The latter was probably still the most interesting thing, so
he had a look at it first. The Colonel never wasted the Admiral’s time with unnecessary things; it always had a good
reason.

He was worried about Jaina Solo, she has had a vision and it seemed to be important for the whole ship.

Kre’fey pressed a button at his desk and told an officer to call her.

As he waited for her, he looked through some of the other stuff, throwing everything he had read on one side of the desk and
creating even more mess than already had been on his desk before.
By the time Jaina arrived, several datapads were close to falling down and joining the poorly aimed ones on the ground.

He looked up from his “work” and noticed the fascinated look in Jaina’s eyes. Obviously she hadn’t
thought that an Admiral could be so messy.

“Ah, Jaina! Come in and have….eh…a seat.” He stood up and cleaned his seat from a few even poorer
aimed datapads; because he was leaning over the table, the ones hanging on the edges also fell down.
Jaina caught them with the force and put them back where she thought they might have been before.

“Thank you.”
“Colonel Darklighter told me you have had a vision.” He started after she had sat down.
“Yes, Sir.” Jain said uneasy.
“Please tell me about it.”

Admiral Kre’fey watched observantly the fight he could see in her eyes; debating whether she should tell him or not.

Her sense of duty won, and slowly she began to tell him of her vision. She didn’t stop, only hesitated as she reached
the point where she had seen his corpse, but continued without leaving anything out.

The Admiral was quite for a long time, considering everything that had happened on the ship lately.
“Thank you, I know it must be hard for you, but it is very important that you’ve told me.”
“Excuse me, Admiral, but I think there’s more.” Kre’fey looked at her surprised.
“I haven’t noticed it before, but the windows on the bridge…I could see Coruscant through them. It was burning.”

Kre’fey nodded. “Don’t worry; I’ve already decided we won’t go there. Master Skywalker has also
told me about his speculation we have at least one Vong on board, we can’t go to the capital with them still here.
We’ll let the ship be repaired somewhere else and in that time; you, your family and friends can take a freighter and
visit your home. You’ve done so much for us that you deserve a little vacation.”

Jaina’s shoulders sank down in relief.

“Thank you, Sir.” She said beaming; hesitated, then thought about it again and embraced him. The Admiral laughed,
not caring about the protocol break.
“Please, call me Treast and leave this stupid “Sir” out!”

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

At the latest news, the only thing Ean Ku could do was gritting his teeth. This bothan Admiral had thwarted their plan badly.

They had wanted to take over the ship before they reached the capital and cause a lot of damage their when they were through
the planetary shields, but that was now impossible.